Honestly, I should have thought things through better.
Because the moment the first hit of my morning coffee pulls me back to my senses, the full weight of what I did Friday night lands squarely on my chest. I sit there at my desk for a good thirty seconds just staring at the wall.
So naturally I am not surprised when the team leader swings by to inform me that Mr. Miller wants to see me in his office. This Monday morning. First thing.
I'd already run the whole thing by Mark and Sam over coffee. Their sympathetic looks tell me everything I need to know about how they think this ends.
It was good knowing you, Brendon.
Honestly they look like they're about to hold a vigil.
I straighten my suit jacket, attempting to look like a man who has his life together.
"Stop with the teary eyes," I say. "Why are you sadder than I am?"
I ruffle Sam's blonde hair. He sniffles.
"You were so brave—" he manages, voice cracking somewhere in the middle.
Ah. This kid.
I turn to Mark for some semblance of adult solidarity. Mark is not faring better. He might as well be holding a handkerchief like a widow at a funeral.
"OUR BRAVE BRENDON—"
I'm already walking away.
I peel them off me, straighten my collar one more time, and push through the door into the meeting room.
It can't be that bad. Right?
***
"So. This is the infamous beta who sucker punched my cousin."
A voice like expensive whiskey with a deep silky tone purrs the words the moment I step through the door.
I was wrong. It can absolutely get worse.
There is no disciplinary committee. No HR panel. No familiar face of middle management I can reason with.
There is one man, sitting in the leather chair at the head of the table like he was placed there by an interior decorator, and every molecule of oxygen in the room has quietly rearranged itself around him.
Adrian Miller. Youngest CEO in Miller Industries' history. Most sought-after alpha in the city by a margin that the gossip in our office treats like a spectator sport. If you looked up apex predator and wanted a face to put next to it, his would do the job without trying.
He is, irritatingly, more attractive than his cousin by a significant distance. Sharp jaw, midnight black hair pushed back. Eyes a cold, pale blue belongs to a glacier. His presence doesn't push into the room the way Caleb's did, like with fake force. It simply occupies it. Like he wasn't born into power, born with it.
Even with my dull beta senses, I can catch the faintest edge of his pheromones from here. Just a trace. Enough to understand, why half the city's omegas are reportedly beside themselves over this man. If he wanted to, genuinely wanted to, he could probably make a dozen people forget their own names.
I am incredibly grateful, in this specific moment, to be a beta.
His fingers snap.
"Eyes up here." A slow, satisfied smile. "Though I don't blame you — given my looks, the reaction is understandable."
I blink.
I look at him.
This spoiled arrogant little brat…
I revise every generous thought I just had.
Forget the jawline. Forget the pheromones. This man is an egotistical headache in an expensive suit and I have a feeling he knows exactly how insufferable he is.
I keep my expression flat.
"My apologies, sir. I was wondering how you knew it was a sucker punch."
Given Caleb's pride, I have serious doubts he filed a detailed report on exactly how fast he went down.
Adrian doesn't answer immediately. Instead he turns his expensive latest model laptop around on the desk to face me, taps the trackpad, and leans back in his chair sprawling like a king on his throne.
A security feed. Slightly grainy, high angle. I watch myself walk into frame, wind up, and put Caleb Miller on the pavement in one clean hit.
My form could use some work, honestly.
The silence stretches. I am mentally composing my resignation when Adrian lets out a laugh — low, quiet, deeply unhinged in a way I cannot fully explain. It raises the hair on the back of my neck.
It is unsettling to hear this psycho's laugh.
"Sir?"
"Don't mind me." He props his chin on one hand, watching the footage cycle again. And again. Something genuinely pleased moving across his face. "It's not every day someone finally puts that slimy cousin of mine in his place. And it helps that you are pleasant to watch, for a beta."
I stare at him, surpassing a shiver of disgust at his…rather flirtatious remark. What kind of kink is this.
Still, for him to react like this on his own kin getting tackled by a lowly beta…the rumours around Miller family's dirty laundry around inheritance grudges must have a truth to them.. Noted.
"Sir, I'm not sure I understand—"
"Work for me."
"...Huh?"